LB 

5401 

I Mi 



k 



AlOuov^Orn, QjLvovi 







Class Ali^ 



Book_31 



1, 



Copyright )J^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Dust as a Carrier of Dis- 
ease in the Schoolroom 



AlVIN DAVISON, PH. D.. PROFESSOR OF 

BIOLOGY IN LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, AND 

THE AUTHOR OF "THE HCMAN 

BODY AND HEALTH" 



Copyright, 1909. by Alvin Davison 



k' 



A 



^%,- 



AUG 't9 t909 



r 



^W^HE days of duelling and cruel warfare 
41 . are fast passing away. The conserva- 
^■■^ tion of human health and happiness is 
beginning to receive due consideration. 
The national government has put itself on record 
as favoring the preservation of its national wealth 
by instituting measures to prevent disease, main- 
tain health and prolong the life of its citizens. 

One and a half miUion of our citizens die 
annually, and authorities on hygiene agree that 
a quarter-million of these lives are sacrifices to 
the gods of ignorance, carelessness and avarice. 
Science has hunted down the weapons of dis- 
ease and made clear how victory over death may 
often be won. The discoveries of Koch, Pas- 
teur and others have made impossible such a tidal 
wave of -death as swept the entire known world 
a score of times in the past during the christian 
era. Cholera, yellow fever and the bubonic 
plague no longer decimate armies or destroy 
fleets, because the abiding place of the germs of 
these diseases has been discovered and their 
destruction speedily accomplished. 




Fig A. Louis Pasteur, the world's greatest 
benefactor in showing how to prevent disease. 




Fig. 2. Robert Koch, the discoverer of the 
germ of tuberculosis which is able to live more 
than a year in school-room dust. 



The germ diseases cause more than a half mil- 
lion deaths yearly, and yet they are known tOk 
be preventable diseases. Diphtheria attacks the 
child only when the microscopic diphtheria plant 
enters its mouth with dust or otherwise. Con- 
sumption and pneumonia are merely conditions 
of ill health caused by the special germs of those 
diseases growing in the body and giving ojff their 
poisons. The only sure method of preventing 
any of these diseases is to prevent the germs from 
entering the body. Thieves cannot rob a house 
and slay the occupants until they have gained 
entrance. Germs cannot destroy the life until 
they have made their way into the human system. 



txiherciihsjs 




•• • . . 





pus aerjns T^T^eiimoma 

Fig. 3. Some of the disease germs which 
have been found in dust. 



Most disease germs reach their victims with air 
or food. With care, pure food may generally 
be obtained, but absolutely pure air is seldom 
found. Investigations have shown, however, that 
air free of dust is almost or quite free of disease 
germs. Moreover since sunshine is a great germ 
killer, out-of-door dust contains only one-tenth 
as many disease germs as in-door dust. One 
way then of preventing disease is to prevent the 
dust from permeating the air within buildings. 

Doctor Abbott of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, in his Hygiene of Transmissible Disease 
says: "Aside from its irritating influence dust 
may, and often does, serve as a direct carrier of 
infection." Sedgwick's Principles of Sanitary 
Science and Public Health refers to the dangers 
of dust as follows: "It still remains true that 
dust must always be regarded by the sanitarian 
as dangerous, not only because of the mechanical 
irritation of the dehcate mucous membrane of 
the throat and other respiratory passages caused 
by the inorganic particles of which it is largely 
composed, but also because of the possibihty of 
its containing virulent germs of disease, such as 
those of tuberculosis or diphtheria from the 
sputum of persons affected with these maladies; 
as well as those of smallpox, scarlet fever, 
measles and the like." 

4 





Cases ^ey«.ta. V.^ \\v£ V«\XKc\\MAkW <x:^XXVa«U«. V\fiHV««X 


Himbe, 
cases 


Z^. 


TA,. 


Nko^. 


o^. 


NVoA^. 


*u«e.. 


3uVi^ (Lu<:\. 


&,,<. 


CkV:. 




\W.. 


(.000 




,/' 






.^' 


\ 














Sooo 




/ 
1 
1 








t 














iooo 




> 


\ 














y 


-^ 


-^ 


3000 




X 


s 




X' 


\ 


\ 






/ 




/ 


xoto 














^ 


r: 


rx-'- 




I«eo 






























Fig. '^. Chart showing that the number of 
cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria are greatly 
increased when the schools are in session. 



Since the young are more susceptible to dis- 
ease than older persons it is of special importance 
that playrooms and school buildings should be 
kept free of dust. Two months after the open- 
ing of the schools in the fall, the number of cases 
of diphtheria and scarlet fever is doubled among 
school children where no effort is made to avoid 
dust in cleaning. Every year contagious diseases 
appeared in the Upsala Street School at Worces- 
ter. Mass., until 1900-1901. During that en- 
tire nine months of school, care was taken to 
avoid causing dust in the rooms, and as a result 
not a single case of contagious disease occurred 
among the 425 pupils. Truly to prevent dust is 
to prevent disease. 




Fig. 5. A ten-year-old school boy in whose 
left tonsil was found thousands of tubercle ba- 
cilli. 



Evidence is constantly accumulating to show 
that the germs which cause tuberculosis resulting 
in one-third of all deaths occurring between the 
ages of fifteen and thirty years find their way into 
the system during school days. Henry B. 
Jacobs, M. D., in his article on the prevention 
of Tuberculosis among School Children, pub- 
lished in Vol. V of The Journal of Outdoor 
Life says: "It is safe to say, perhaps, that in 
every case of tuberculosis, the infection occurred 
from two to ten years before its final manifesta- 
tion. This being so, the cases of consumption, 
which begin to be numerous after the fifteenth 
year of life, must have had their inception, their 
infection, within the school days." Such state- 
ments as this coming from a scientist of high 
standing lead anxious parents and alert school 
authorities to ask how these tiny agents of death 
find their way to the lungs and other organs of 
their victim. 

In every city of 80,000 inhabitants there are 
at least 1 ,000 persons with tuberculosis. The 
average number of germs cast out in the sputum 
of each sufferer is not less than 1 ,000,000 daily. 
Some of this germ-laden sputum is cast upon the 
sidewalk, and sticking to the shoes of passing 
children finds its way into the school room. In 
some places it is certain that in this manner 
thousands of tubercular germs are carried daily 
into the school building. The experiments of 
Cornet, Klein and others have demonstrated that 
these deadly germs may continue to live there for 
weeks and even months. 




Fig. 6. Dishes of pure meat jelly which were 
left open two minutes in a school room being 
swept. Wherever a germ dropped it grew in 
three days to form a colony appearing as a white 
spot. 



So long as the germs remain on the floor, no 
harm results, but the janitor in his daily sweep- 
ing distributes them over the books and desks. 
The children after touching these objects put 
their fingers into their mouths or noses and thus 
in a single minute may transfer a score or more 
of tubercular germs to the nursery grounds 
formed by decayed teeth and enlarged tonsils. 
By placing the finger on a desk not well dusted 
and then touching the finger to a moistened 
glass slide as it might have been touched to the 
mouth, I have been able to demonstrate the pres- 
ence of over a thousand germs of various kinds 
clinging to the tip of the finger. 

Moreover, the janitor in sweeping scatters the 
germ-bearing dust through the air and thus 
causes myriads of germs to later drop upon the 
floor as is shown by the accompanying illustra- 
tions. 

By catching the germs dropping to the floor 
during sweeping, in dishes of pure meat jelly, I 
have been able to show that in the cleaning of 
an ordinary school room more than 1 0,000,000 
germs fell to the floor every two minutes. These 
germs are being constantly stirred up during the 
day by the tramp of the feet and the currents 
produced by the swinging of the skirts so that 
the air of the room is more or less charged with 
whatever germs are distributed over the floor. 
St-ernberg's Bacteriology records the average 
number of bacteria in each cubic yard of air in 
school rooms examined by Ruete and Enoch as 
250,000. Fortunately, however, but a small 
part of these are of the disease-producing class. 
The fact, nevertheless, that the germs of tubercu- 
losis have often been found in dust, makes it evi- 
dent that the children are likely to breathe some 
^ disease germs into their mouths when living sev- 
eral hours daily in a dusty room. 



The tubercular germ when once in the mouth 
can easily make its way through the soft enlarged 
tonsils into the blood or lymph vessels and then 
be carried to the lungs or elsewhere to grow later 
and produce tuberculosis. 



# % 







Fig. 7. An exact drawing of the enlarged 
tonsils in a ten-year-old schoolboy, one of which 
contained many tubercle bacilli. 



Of 78,000 school children recently examined 
in New York City, more than I 8,000 had en- 
larged tonsils giving easy access to the disease 
germs. Among these same school children over 
35,000 were found with* enlarged glands in the 
neck which in many cases were due to tubercular 
germs growing there after they had found their 
way from the mouth through the tonsils and 
down the lymph vessels. 






If 



Fig. 8. Eleven-year-old school boy with an 
enlarged gland at the side of the neck caused 
by germs of tuberculosis. 



Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in New \ork in his 
admirable book on Dust and its Dangers says: 
"More proof than is in our hands is hardly 
needed that in a very large proportion of cases 
in inhabited regions, the infection or germ of 
tuberculosis is conveyed from sick to well per- 
sons by means of the material discharged from 
the lungs, which is allowed from carelessness or 
ignorance, to dry and finally mingle with the 
floating dust." 

If the germs of tuberculosis are so common in 
the dust as late investigations seem to show, some 
persons ask "why do not more of the children 
become infected?" The reply is that a great 
many more become infected than actually suffer 
from the disease. The bodies of three out of 
every four persons dying after the school age of 
other causes than consumption, when examined 
carefully are found to have growths of tubercle 
bacilli in them somewhere. Von Behring in his 
recent book on the Suppression of Tuberculosis 
says: "Dr. Naegeli of Zurich, working under 
the direction of Prof. Ribbert, was unable to 
discover at autopsy a single body over thirty 
years old in which there were not some signs of 
the occurrence of a tubercular infection." 

One-third of all deaths occurring within fif- 
teen years after the average age at which pupils 
quit school, result from tuberculosis. Four hun- 
dred persons die daily of this malady alone in 
the United States. "The reason why consump- 
tion is so widespread," says Doctor Prudden, "is 



simply that consumptive persons, either trom ig- 
norance or carelessness, are distributing the poi- 
son not only everywhere they go but everywhere 
the dust goes." 

That the specific agents of diphtheria, tonsil- 
litis, scarlet fever and perhaps other diseases lurk 
in the school room dust there is little doubt, but 
further demonstrations of the evils arising from 
dust permitted to accumulate in rooms where the 
young are confined several hours daily is unnec- 
essary. 

In the great twentieth century fight now go- 
ing on against disease, the opinion that dust must 
be banished whenever and wherever possible is 
unanimous. Health authorities have denounced 
dry sweeping and the after-use of the feather 
duster, scattering showers of death-laden dust 
from one end of the room to the other, as little 
less than criminal carelessness. 

The dust evil may be much mitigated in va- 
rious ways with little trouble and expense. In 
some schoolrooms, damp sawdust is sprinkled 
over the floors to allay the dust, while in others 
the floor is oiled bi-monthly. Of these two meth- 
ods, the use of sawdust is preferable. The one 
chief objection to the oil is that it soils dresses, 
and the other that it fails to hold fast many of 
the germ-bearing dust particles after a fortnight's 
application. Some janitors refuse to use saw- 
dust because of the large amount required and 
the difficulty of keeping it in a proper moist con- 
dition. The latter may be largely overcome by 
a little patient experience. 

13 



m?i:t^: ^ 



*f*-'.f^*--' 






Fig 9. Photograph of two plates of pure 
meat jelly. P was left open four minutes in the 
school room being swept with the use of Perolin. 
D was left open four minutes in the same room 
the next day while it was being swept dry. The 
spots show where germs fell on the plates and 
grew. 



As a substitute for the oil dressings and moist 
sawdust there has recently been placed on the 
market a product called Perolin, the invention of 
Dr. Sandor Brick, an eminent German chemist, 
which when swept over the floor absorbs in a large 
degree dust particles, great and small. The cheap- 
ness of the product and its effectiveness in keep- 
ing down the dust commend it to all members of 
the health brigade. By bacterial cultures, I have 
been able to demonstrate that in the sweeping of 
an ordinary school room, the Perolin used was 
able to catch and hold"iast more than 1 00,000,- 
000 germs. The use of a damp cloth instead of 
a dry rag or feather duster in cleansing the desks 
still further reduces the germ content of the room 
and renders it quite or entirely sanitary. 

The riches and blessing which are sure to 
come from adopting the proper measures to main- 
tain health are tersely stated in the January num- 
ber of American Health in the following words : 
"What might be accomplished by a determined 
effort to conserve human life, has been estimated 
for the Conservation Commission by one of its 
members. Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale Uni- 
versity. By the aid of eighteen medical experts, 
he has calculated tnat the prevention, even in a 
moderate degree, of the preventable diseases, 
would lengthen human life in this country fully 
one-third and possibly much more." 



15 



In India where sanitary living is disregarded 
the average length of human life is twenty-five 
years, while in our own country sanitation and 
the assistance of faithful physicians has increased 
the average length of life from thirty-five years 
in 1850 to forty-five years in 1905. Pure air, 
pure food and pure water are the necessities of 
healthful living, but the greatest of these is pure 
air. 

Easton, Pa., April 10, 1909. 



I 



I 



